Metropolitan Cities under PNRR: a position paper

The contemporary global scenario is marked by a plethora of multilevel crises, profoundly influencing the socioeconomic and environmental fabric of territories. The primary policy strategy introduced to address this scenario is the European program NextGenerationEU, translated in Italy as the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). The PNRR is characterized as a plan without a clear strategy, lacking a genuine national urban agenda. However, it has endowed the country with extraordinary funds, involving all spheres of public policies and all political and administrative levels. In particular, Metropolitan Cities, through Innovative Programs for Housing Quality (PINQuA) and Integrated Urban Plans (PUI), have assumed a pivotal role within this framework, positioning themselves at the epicenter of an unparalleled funding system for urban regeneration projects. This has severely tested the administrations' capacity to coordinate, monitor, and implement projects to meet the objectives set by national calls and European targets. Nearly two years after the launch of the PNRR, there are still many elements of opacity that prompt some critical inquiry: how to overcome the dyscrasia between the timelines imposed by the call for proposals and the need to intercept all levels of planning, to implement and spatialize the results of national and European policies? How have the Metropolitan Cities changed their organizational structures and how can these new governance models sustain themselves in the long term? In this framework the Research Project of National Interest (PRIN 2022) “Metropolitan Cities under PNRR”, coordinated by Carlo Pisano and Valentina Orioli, takes place. This article will describe the context, objectives and initial findings of research in unique situation within the Italian context: Florence and Bologna, Italy’s only adjacent Metropolitan Cities, share the same geographic arc, similar opportunities, housing dimensions, and historical-political traditions. However, they are engaged in different approaches in managing PNRR resources allocated to PINQuA and PUI.